Tom Stewart
Photo credited to the United States Senate Historical Office
United States Senator fromTennessee
In office November 9, 1938[1] – January 3, 1949
Preceded by	George L. Berry
Succeeded by	Estes Kefauver
Personal details
Born	(1892-01-11)January 11, 1892 Dunlap, Tennessee, U.S.
Died	October 10, 1972(1972-10-10) (aged 80) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Political party	Democratic

Arthur Thomas Stewart (January 11, 1892 – October 10, 1972) was aDemocraticUnited States Senator fromTennessee from 1938 to 1949.

Stewart was born inDunlap, Tennessee. Stewart also had a sister called Lydia. He attended the former Pryor Institute, a private school, inJasper, Tennessee and Emory College (nowEmory University). He returned to Tennessee and attendedCumberland University's law school inLebanon,Tennessee. Upon admission to thebar in 1913, he set up practice inBirmingham, Alabama. He moved back to Jasper, Tennessee in 1915 and practised there until 1919, then moved toWinchester, Tennessee.

In private practice in Winchester, he was electeddistrict attorney for the former 18th Circuit for a term beginning in 1923. He served in this position until 1939. As a consequence, in 1925 Stewart was the chief prosecutor in theScopes Trial. Stewart designed the prosecution's argument to preserve political control over the schools exclusively within the state legislature, thereby keeping the trial to the narrow, legal matters and forestalling attempts by thedefense to introduce scientific testimony or to show there was not a conflict betweenevolution and the story of divinecreation set forth inGenesis. Except for the willingness ofWilliam Jennings Bryan (hired by aChristian fundamentalist group to assist with the prosecution) to be cross-examined byClarence Darrow, Stewart's positions controlled the trial and the Scopes defense had no recourse but to ask the jury to convict the defendant so the case could be appealed to theTennessee Supreme Court (which overturned the conviction on a legal technicality but upheld the constitutionality of theButler Act).

In 1938 Stewart entered the race for the balance of the unexpired term of the late SenatorNathan L. Bachman, who had died in office. In the August Democraticprimary he defeatedlabor union leaderGeorge L. Berry, who had been appointed to the seat upon Bachman's death byGovernorGordon Browning, and was elected Senator on November 8. Eligible to begin serving immediately, he instead waited until the expiry of his term as district attorney on January 16, 1939 to take his Senate seat.

Stewart was somewhat typical of the Democratic Party'sSouthern wing of that era. He has been considered to be at least somewhat an ally ofMemphispolitical bossE. H. Crump, but less so than Tennessee's other Senator of the time, MemphianKenneth McKellar. Unlike some of the other Southern Senators, however, Stewart was also a staunch pro-RooseveltNew Dealer and was the only successful Senator to win a primary and purge an incumbent Senator whom Roosevelt targeted in the 1938 midterm election "purge."^[2] Stewart was reelected in 1942. In that year, shortly after the beginning ofJapanese internment, he introduced a bill in the Senate to revoke citizenship from all American-born persons of Japanese ancestry.^[3] In 1948, he was challenged for renomination byEstes Kefauver, aprogressiveEast Tennessean who defeated him.Edward J. Meeman, the influential editor of theMemphis Press-Scimitar, supported Kefauver to undermine the Crump machine, with which Meeman had long been at odds. After he defeated Stewart, Kefauver then handily prevailed over theRepublican nominee,B. Carroll Reece.

Stewart returned to the private practice of law. He died inNashville and was interred at Winchester's Memorial Park Cemetery.

• Tom Stewart atFind a Grave

• 1892 births
• 1972 deaths
• Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States
• American segregationists
• Tennessee Democrats
• Emory University alumni
• Cumberland School of Law alumni
• Democratic Party United States senators from Tennessee
• People from Dunlap, Tennessee
• People from Winchester, Tennessee
• 20th-century United States senators

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